[The following Associated Press article is excerpted from the September 15 issue of The Philadelphia Inquirer. The AP article updates the longer Labor Fightback Network (LFN) piece that was written two days before the strike began. The LFN article is reprinted below.]

 September 16, 2023 – Nearly one in 10 of America’s unionized auto workers went on strike Friday, September 15. By striking simultaneously at General Motors, Ford and Chrysler owner Stellantis, the United Auto Workers union is trying to  win back some pay and benefits  that the autoworkers gave up after the 2008-2009 Great Recession.

The strikes are limited for now to three assembly plants: a GM factory in Wentzville, Missouri, a Ford plant in Wayne, Michigan, near Detroit, and a Jeep plant run by Stellantis in Toledo, Ohio.

President Biden dispatched aides to Detroit to help resolve the impasse and said the Big 3 automakers should share their “record profits.”

Union President Shawn Fain says workers could strike at more plants if the companies don’t come up with better offers. The workers are seeking across-the-board wage increases of 36% over four years; the companies have countered by offering increases ranging from 17.5% to 20%.

Workers out on the picket lines said they hoped the strikes didn’t last long, but added that they were committed to the cause and appreciated Fain’s tough tactics.

“We didn’t have a problem coming in during COVID, being essential workers and making them big profits,” said Chrism Hoisington, who has worked at the Toledo Jeep plant since 2001. “We’ve sacrificed a lot.”

Now, roughly 13,000 of 146,000 workers at the three companies are on strike, making life complicated for automakers’ operations, while limiting the drain on the union’s $825 million strike fund.

The walkouts also will be an issue in next year’s presidential election, testing Biden’s claim to being the “most union-friendly president in American history.”

In addition to the wage increases, union negotiators are also seeking: restoration of cost-of-living pay raises; an end to varying tiers of wages for factory jobs; a 32-hour week with 40 hours of pay; the restoration of traditional defined-benefit pensions for new hires who now receive only 401(k)-style retirement plans; and pension increases for retirees, among other items.

Starting in 2007, workers gave up cost-of-living raises and defined benefit pensions for new hires. Wage tiers were created as the UAW tried to help the companies avoid financial trouble ahead of and during the Great Recession. Even so, only Ford avoided bankruptcy protection.

Many say it’s time to get the concessions back because the companies are making huge profits and CEOs pay packages are soaring.

Looming in the background is the historic transition to electric vehicles. The union wants to make sure it represents workers at joint-venture electric vehicle battery factories the companies are building so that members have jobs making vehicles of the future.

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LABOR FIGHTBACK NETWORK

https://laborfightback.net

Contact person: Sandy Eaton, sandy.eaton@icloud.com

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UAW Workers Prepare to Strike as Contract Deadline Approaches; Entire Labor Movement Must Prepare to Mobilize in Support!

By the Labor Fightback Network

( posted to our website at: https://tinyurl.com/3heyveys )

At this writing, the UAW is preparing actively for a strike that could begin at 11:59 pm on September 14.

At a press conference on September 11, newly elected UAW President Shawn Fain stated that the Big 3 automakers have raked in $250 billion in profits over the past decade, prompting the demand that “record profits should equal record contracts.”

 Contract talks are going down to the wire with the two sides far apart. 

The UAW is demanding that the Big 3 increase wages by 46% over four years; eliminate two-tier pay and benefits; win back the cost-of-living allowance; establish a 32-hour workweek with no cut in pay; restore the defined-benefit pension and the retiree health insurance; increase pensions for retirees; ensure job security for workers when plants are shut down (because of the transition to Electric Vehicles and the export of these jobs to Mexico); and make all current temps permanent employees.

The auto bosses countered with an offer to raise wages by 10% to 15%, with a one-time lump-sum 6% payment. They rejected all the other union demands. The auto magnates argue that the huge profits accrued over the past decade have to be put aside to fund the transition to Electric Vehicles.

With great reason, the UAW leaders are increasingly worried that the EV transition will be used by the employers to eliminate jobs and lower wages and benefits in the new plants. The automakers’ real concern is maximizing their profits. 

[While gasoline-powered vehicles typically use about 30,000 components, EVs require about half of that. For starters, there are over 200 moving parts in a gas engine, whereas an EV only has 18.]

Fain referred to the bosses’ proposals as “shameful and insulting” and “deeply inadequate.”

Ranks are ready to strike!

The UAW ranks are prepared to strike and ready to go. Scott Houldieson, a Ford UAW Local 551 member in Chicago and chair of the reform caucus Unite All Workers for Democracy (UAWD), stated, “The public understands that workers have gotten the shaft while keeping our economy humming along for Wall Street. It’s long past time that Main Street got their fair share!”

Lynda Jackson, recording secretary of UAW Local 7, said. “I’ve never seen so many people engaged and excited, and just ready to show the world what we deserve.”

The business press is demanding loudly that Biden intervene to avert a strike, as he did with the rail workers late last year. Biden has stated publicly that there will be no Big 3 strike … but this time it might not be so easy for Biden to prevent a strike. 

Shawn Fain was elected for the first time in UAW history by one person one vote. Although Fain won his election by a small margin, his support among the rank and file is growing in response to his class-conscious, combative style.

In addition, the UAW is one of the few unions that has withheld its early endorsement of Biden. Having said that, Fain is seeking support from Biden for the UAW as part of the government’s intervention in subsidizing the auto companies’ transition to EVs.

You can be sure that the auto barons and their capitalist cronies, who fear that a protracted strike could seriously impact their bottom lines, will be tightening the squeeze on Biden.

Mass Mobilizations Needed to Support the Auto Workers

If the auto workers go on strike, as expected, their courageous action must be supported actively by the entire labor movement. This is a showdown and a direct challenge to Biden’s much heralded reputation as the “best friend that labor ever had.”

Sympathy strikes, massive and widespread, could be considered. A Solidarity Day 3 march and rally in Washington, DC could be organized. Picket-lines at Big 3 dealerships and headquarters could be organized. Campus rallies and sit-ins could be held. The UAW picket-lines will also need material support.

This is not just one more important strike. Labor analysts tell us that millions of jobs will be lost because of Artificial Intelligence (AI), of which EV is an off-shoot. 

This is largely a strike against AI as an instrument by the bosses to maximize their profits on the backs of working people when, if freed from the capitalists’ dictates. AI could be placed at the service of improving the working and living conditions of millions of people the world over. 

This is a PATCO-type moment. A successful UAW auto workers’ strike will go a long way to reverse the massive austerity restructuring forced on the union during the Obama/Biden 2009 bailout of the domestic auto companies after the Wall Street financial crisis.

The time to mobilize in our own name as a working class is now. The labor movement — beginning with the AFL-CIO – can and must meet the challenge.